More than a dozen players have worn the number 26 since Wade Boggs departed Boston for New York, and former Red Sox 3B Wade Boggs believes his 11 years at Fenway have earned him a jersey retirement ceremony. Unsurprisingly, the club disagrees, as the Boston Globe’s Stan Grossfeld explains :
The Red Sox, who inducted Boggs into their team Hall of Fame in 2004, won’t go the distance.
“They told me there’s criteria,” Boggs said. “You have to end your career as a Red Sox.”Boston fans still cringe at the indelible image of a giddy Boggs riding on horseback with a police officer at Yankee Stadium, an index finger jabbing skyward. Not exactly Carlton Fisk waving his 1975 World Series home run fair. But Fisk, who played more seasons for the White Sox than the Red Sox, eventually was hired back as a special assistant in Boston, and his No. 27 has been retired at Fenway.
“Mrs. Yawkey called me and Debbie over in the parking lot in 1991 after the last game,” said Boggs. “She said, ‘Wade I want you to follow in the same steps as Ted and Carl [Yastrzemski]. I want you to be a Red Sox for life.’
“I said, ‘Mrs. Yawkey, that would make me extremely happy.’ She said, ‘Would seven years, $35 million be adequate?’ I said, ‘I’ll sign it right now.’ But then she slips in the tub, she dies, and everything washes away.”